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    Does accessible technology need an ‘entrepreneurial state’? The creation of an EU market of universally designed and assistive technology through state aid


    Ferri, Delia (2015) Does accessible technology need an ‘entrepreneurial state’? The creation of an EU market of universally designed and assistive technology through state aid. International Review of Law, Computers & Technology, 29 (2-3). p. 137. ISSN 1360-0869

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    Abstract

    EU State aid law has sought to enable people with disabilities to obtain employment, yet has not been explicitly included in the toolbox of policy options to improve the availability and choice of accessible technology within the EU Internal market. This seems to be the consequence of an inherent bias against State intervention in the market, which is mostly unwelcome since it can limit open and free competition. This also reiterates the ‘less-aid’ policy and the purely economic approach to State aid professed by the European Commission. Against this background, this article discusses the potential for EU State aid policy to foster both ‘design for all’ and innovative assistive devices for people with disabilities. It seeks to argue that the goal of an EU-wide market of accessible technology can be achieved using EU State aid law. In particular, this article aims to highlight that a more targeted use of EU State aid law can lead developers to increase the production of accessible goods, to adjust or reduce prices and to provide consumers with a greater degree of choice in a greater number of marketplaces. Whilst it adopts a legal approach, this analysis relies inter alia on economic evidence and recalls the pamphlet recently published by Mazzuccato, from which the title of this work has drawn inspiration.
    Item Type: Article
    Keywords: EU state aid law; accessible technology; design for all; assistive technology; R&D;
    Academic Unit: Faculty of Social Sciences > Law
    Item ID: 8905
    Identification Number: 10.1080/13600869.2015.1055660
    Depositing User: Delia Ferri
    Date Deposited: 17 Oct 2017 14:13
    Journal or Publication Title: International Review of Law, Computers & Technology
    Publisher: Taylor & Francis
    Refereed: Yes
    Related URLs:
    URI: https://mu.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/8905
    Use Licence: This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available here

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